[790] Dead Calm (3)
* * *
"Who is it?"
When Shirone opened the hotel door after a knock, a woman he'd never seen before stood there smiling.
"Who… are you?"
Her looks demanded the question be asked again.
"Hello! Mage! I'm Barho Rangi—this year's Miss Arachne."
"Miss Arachne?"
Her bright greeting put Shirone slightly at ease, but her identity raised a new tension.
"What could someone like you want with me?"
Rangi produced a Spirit magazine from somewhere and held it out.
"I'm a fan. You graduated top of Alpheas Magic School, and you work at the Ivory Tower—the place only the world's best mages can enter."
Shirone stared blankly.
"Hehe, I'm really into magic. Could I get your autograph?"
On the Spirit magazine Rangi had spread open, Shirone's face from the two-thousandth duel—when he'd beaten Dante—was plastered across the cover.
'Was I really that country-looking?'
He'd looked like a true rural youth back then, and he honestly couldn't tell how much of that had changed.
"All right. Come in for now."
Shirone invited Rangi into the suite and, while searching for a pen, she looked the place over.
'It's my first time here, too.'
The Royal Arachne Hotel housed VIPs; even the VVIP floors below had over forty rooms. But Shirone's suite took up the entire top floor.
It was a room used only in the most austere times—he knew its door opened fewer than twice a year.
"A mage from the Ivory Tower…."
A transnational figure the politicians he called vipers feared and trembled at during drunken gatherings.
"She looks so innocent."
She hadn't touched the finest liquor in the suite; on the wide bed lay only a single shabby book.
"So modest in personality, too. Why are people so afraid of her?"
Watching Shirone dash around the broad room looking for a pen even made her seem endearing.
"Oh, right!"
Shirone stopped in the center of the floor and shivered as he looked up at the ceiling.
"If you don't have a pen, you can use mine—"
Before Rangi finished, Shirone smacked his own forehead and spoke.
"Agh, I'm such an idiot!"
"Huh? An idiot?"
Shirone sighed, came closer empty-handed, and reached toward the table.
'Material.'
Information assembled at a terrifying speed, and a single marker had already formed in his hand.
"Oho?"
Rangi's eyes glittered.
'Is there magic like that?'
She'd seen the Magic Association's higher-ups show off flashy spells, but she'd never seen someone conjure a pen.
"It's fun. It's like a magic trick."
Rangi didn't know—what he'd made was only a pen, but the theory behind that spell was, in essence, universal knowledge itself.
"Hehe, yeah. I'm always losing things, so I tend to forget. Sorry about that."
"Oh? Can you make other things, too?"
Shirone gave an awkward smile.
"In theory, yes."
Yahweh simply hated actions that disrupted the system; if Shirone wanted, he could churn out diamonds without limit.
But Rangi, ignorant of magic, took his modesty at face value.
'Well, if you could make anything, you'd be a god, right?'
Shirone had never signed an autograph in his life—his mouth went dry and his hand trembled.
'I can't disappoint her. If I mess up I'll have to undo it.'
Thanks to the trump card calm he'd prepared, the signature came out believable.
"Here's your autograph. I hope you like it."
"I love it."
Rangi hugged the magazine.
'Is it my turn to get an autograph from the great mage who's staying in a hotel suite?'
Shirone knew why he'd invited Miss Arachne to his room even if he was a decent person.
'You're not a bad person.'
A first-rate host made guests feel at ease without overt servility; Rangi opened up of her own accord.
'He's a man—of course he wants me.'
So.
'I'll forget. All of it.'
He wished none of the day's memories would remain.
Just then his stomach gave an audible growl.
Rangi smiled shyly.
"I've been starving myself for days getting ready for the contest. I can barely move. Could we have dinner together…?"
"Just a moment. I bought some bread on the way; there's some left."
Shirone pitied the hungry woman and hastily dug through his bag, but a moment later an awkward discovery followed.
"Huh? This…"
It was the hard bread travelers favored, and a half-chewed bite was plainly visible.
"I'm sorry. I'll get something else."
"It's fine. We're all people. And I like this bread a lot—perfect for dieting."
Shirone had never dreamed he'd be giving Miss Arachne his half-eaten bread.
Rangi took the bread, tore it in half, and handed him the remaining piece.
"I'll eat only half. There should be strawberry jam. It's pretty dry, so…"
She efficiently produced things and set them on the table, then took a top-shelf wine from the shelf.
"And a little wine."
Dinner began, and by the time they finished the bread the wine had loosened Rangi.
"Shirone, do you have a lover?"
"Yes, I do."
Rangi's surprised face showed she hadn't expected such a firm answer.
"We met at school. We're apart right now. He's a soldier."
"Oh? A soldier."
Rangi, mentally calculating their compatibility, decided to push her luck.
"Not only is he skilled with magic, his will is really strong. When he threw a punch at that Nayd during the graduation exam…."
He was excited as he spoke for the first time—he truly seemed to like a woman named Amy.
'Still—talking about your lover nonstop in front of a woman. Naive or stupid?'
When Shirone finished, Rangi gulped the last of the wine and stood.
"Right. Shall I give you a shoulder rub?"
Rangi turned and put her hands on his shoulders. His neck drew back like a turtle withdrawing into its shell.
"Ugh, I'm fine."
Stay still. I'm good at this. Or what—if you don't have a lover, you can't touch someone?"
"No! It's not that, but…."
Rangi's eyes shone.
'This is it. I've got the feel for it.'
He didn't like hurting people.
"To be rubbing the shoulders of the world's most famous mage—what luck."
"You're the famous one, Rangi. You're Miss Arachne and you're competing in the world contest."
"Heh heh, that's true. Then let's make a promise. Tonight will be something only the two of us ever know."
"What? Ah, yes."
Rangi wanted no scandal.
'So when are you going to start tormenting me properly? How long will you keep this up?'
As she softly massaged his shoulders she leaned close to Shirone's ear.
"I'm so happy."
If Shirone turned his head, she would kiss him—and from that moment no man would escape.
"Congratulations, Your Majesty."
The king would get what he wanted.
"Shirone…."
But perhaps he lacked the courage to turn; Shirone stared straight ahead like a stone.
"Shirone, just look at me for a second."
"Rangi."
A firm voice cut the mood.
"I'm sorry. I don't know why you're like this, Miss Rangi—maybe I'm mistaken, but—"
Only then did Shirone rise. Looking at Rangi, his drunken haze cleared.
"When I first saw you I thought you were very beautiful. But I have someone I love. As long as I'm with that person, I will never betray them."
"It's not betrayal. I'm not asking you out."
Rangi made a final plea, but Shirone shook his head hard.
"If that's the case, then I can't accept it. You seem very drunk. Sleep here tonight."
Rangi looked frightened as he stood to leave.
"No! Don't do that. I can't sleep here instead of a mage."
"You promised."
Shirone smiled and opened the door.
"We promised we'd keep this between the two of us forever."
"Ah…."
Rangi sat down heavily, stunned, until the sound of the door closing reached her.
"Is this real? Is it really over?"
It wasn't a bad result, and the promise that it would be only between them saved her, but why did she feel irritated?
"You idiot! Who's going to praise you for acting all virtuous? You'll regret it your whole life!"
Convinced possession was victory, Rangi flung herself onto the suite bed and stretched out.
"Oh, this is great! Right now I'm higher than the king!"
She fluttered her limbs like a butterfly and savored the silk. Turning her head, she saw the book Shirone had been reading.
"You left it. What book is it?"
She flipped toward the middle and found it was a novel.
Dragon Fist, the Archmage
"Ha ha…."
Dropping her arms in an empty gesture, she finally laughed up at the ceiling.
"Puhahahaha!"
Maybe Arcane had been right.
"Dragon Fist…! Puhi hi hi hi!"
A mage is an eternal boy.
* * *
The next morning.
Shirone, lost in thought on the hotel roof, watched the sun rise and then flew toward the sky.
Rangi's visit had put his instincts on alert; when he arrived at the palace his expression was firmer than before.
"Welcome, great star."
Paronika, the king of Arachne, bowed his massive upper body to greet Shirone.
"How did the matter I asked about yesterday go? Did you find someone named Jestin?"
"Well, there's far more material than I expected. It'll take a little more time."
Just as Shirone had anticipated.
"I see."
If this had been any other star, Paronika might have grabbed him, but assuming it would be easy, he pressed on.
"Actually, there's been trouble in the kingdom lately and we're short-staffed, so we've been slow."
Shirone listened.
"Terror threats. They said if we don't cancel the world beauty pageant they'll turn the venue into a bloodbath."
Asking an Ivory Tower star meant Arachne's police hadn't been able to catch the culprit.
"So it's an impertinent request, but if one of the Five Great Stars would step in personally and resolve it—hrrk!"
Paronika shut his mouth as Shirone's eyes burned with a killing intent that felt like breath being stopped.
'W-what is this aura…?'
Even though he'd met a star of the Ivory Tower before, a frozen terror like blood tearing in his veins seized him.
"The person I'm looking for is—"
If not for his promise to Rangi, Shirone would have pressed Paronika even harder.
"A person who holds the fate of the world. Even now thousands of people are dying."
'They're really dying!'
Paronika felt in his whole body that the youth before him was one of the Ivory Tower's Five Great Stars.
"I'm sorry! I'll have a profile on Amari Jestin prepared immediately."
If they hadn't already found it, there would have been no negotiation.
'Phew, this is exhausting too.'
Only then did Shirone relax the killing intent in his eyes and turn his thoughts to the terror threats.
'I should look into that separately.'
Stopping a major disaster was important, but he didn't want Maya's precious debut stage to be endangered.
'I'm worried about Miss Rangi too.'
For now, finding the Betafish was the priority.